Manage Service Providers

Description of tasks:

A medium-sized service company has handed over the hardware service for its workplace PCs to an external service provider. It is now planning to outsource the entire workplace service. As part of this IT outsourcing project, an IT vendor management organization was set up so that the service provider could be appropriately monitored during the operating phase. The concept to be created will also be used as a basis for managing other service providers in the future.

Our services:

We support the development of IT vendor management organization by taking on the following tasks, which we handle in close coordination with the internal units involved:

• Analysis of the general conditions:
  e.g. company development, strategy, IT service management
• As-is analysis of the relevant internal organization:
  Organizational units involved in vendor management, existing staffing, task assignment, rules, procedures and tools
• Requirement analysis:
  Analysis of required tasks for service delivery and service provider control
• Creation of a to-be concept for IT vendor management:
  future conception of service provider control, roles and responsibilities, process design, tool support, staff selection and development.

After adoption of the to-be concept we accompany the implementation of the IT vendor management concept.

Description of tasks:

The IT organization of a company in the healthcare sector is planning to hand over the operation of its local data networks to an external provider. A tender process is to be used to select a service provider who will also take over the transition of the services.

Our Services:

In close coordination with representatives of the internal parties involved (IT department, internal IT customers, purchasing, legal department), we take on the following tasks within the framework of the outsourcing project set up for this purpose:

• Determination of the company-specific basic conditions
  (including targets, internal organization / processes, future development),
• As-is and requirements analysis
  of the existing IT services or those to be provided,

• Creation of the to-be concept,
  ie. specification of IT services and transition services to be outsourced, specification of cooperation and IT vendor management design, possible bidders, business case,
• Preparation of tender documents (Request for Proposal)
  on the basis of the target concept, incl. service descriptions and draft contract,
• Accompaniment of the awarding process up to the conclusion of the contract,
  ie. clarification of bidder questions, comparison of bids, support of contract negotiations and documentation of the award of contract.

After the company has contracted a service provider, we take over the customer’s management of the transition phase, in which the provider prepares to take over the contracted services. We coordinate the work to be performed internally and manage the provider’s project services. In addition, we ensure appropriate quality assurance and acceptance of the services set up by the provider.

Description of tasks:

As part of a process optimization of the network service, our public customer plans to outsource partial services to an external service provider.

A concept for the reorganization of the network service developed by amendos during the planning phase forms the basis of the tender. This concept specifies which tasks are to be performed by the external service provider and how the cooperation with the external service provider will be structured in the future within the framework of IT vendor management.

Our Services:

We start by advising the client on the selection of the appropriate request for proposal procedure. The client decides on a public procurement procedure according to the German regulation “VGV”.

Afterwards, on the basis of our concept, we prepare tender documents that comply with procurement law and consist of the following elements:

• Terms and conditions of purchase of the customer, supplemented by technical topics concerning the terms and conditions of the contract,
• Suitability and evaluation criteria,

• Specifications for network service setup:
  especially regarding installation, documentation and acceptance procedures,
• an exact description of the initial situation, the to-be concept and the resulting services to be offered,
• a detailed specification of interfaces between internal and external organization, cooperation and planned IT vendor management,
• SLA specifications regarding the services to be delivered,
• a price sheet, which specifies the respective quantities and requested price positions for each service to be offered in individual items,
• a draft contract based on the public sample agreement EVB-IT.

After the contract has been announced and the request for proposal documents have been sent out, we provide support in the bidding phase by answering the bidders’ questions. Subsequently, the bids received are evaluated according to formal, technical and economic criteria. In coordination with the client, a documentation of the bid evaluation including the recommended next steps is prepared. On this basis, we accompany bidder discussions to clarify open points and subsequently supplement the bid evaluation with a recommendation for awarding the contract.

Description of tasks:

The IT organization of a medium-sized industrial company has set itself the goal of aligning its IT services more closely with business requirements. For this purpose, the current services are to be mapped in an IT service catalog for the first time in order to be able to strategically control further development of the service portfolio on this basis.

Our Services:

At the beginning we clarify the basic conditions of the current service provision. In particular, we identify which organizational units provide IT services, how the relationships between them are regulated, and how the coordination with internal customers takes place.

This is followed by an as-is analysis to record and analyze the services that are currently being provided but have not yet been documented in a proper way. For this purpose, we conduct interviews with the IT service providers and customer representatives. The goal is to obtain an overview of the content of the current services and their quality.

Based on this, the services are redesigned. For this purpose, we present a methodology to the stakeholders to be involved and coordinate it with them. The methodology contains a two-stage procedure which – in line with ITIL – enables the definition of technical services and derives business services from them.

Technical and business services are defined on this basis: the service content is compiled for each service and the service levels are defined. The services created are aligned with the customer’s current requirements. At all stages, we work closely with internal IT and business representatives to ensure that the services meet requirements and are economically viable.

The service definitions are documented in a suitable form so that they can be imported into the existing ITSM tool. In addition, this data is prepared in the form of a service catalog that is available to the target groups.

Description of tasks:

The IT department of a chemical company wants to simplify the access to its services for its IT users. For this purpose, a central service portal has been set up where all service requests can be initiated. In a follow-up project, various service request processes will now be optimized in order to further simplify and accelerate service requests.

Our Services:

We first clarify the basic conditions: the relevant process landscape including the adjacent processes as well as existing process standards and tools, process participants and process users. In addition, we ensure that the employees relevant for the success of the process optimization are involved in the project and attuned to the project task.

After that for each process the following steps are run through in workshops moderated by us (and prepared before and documented afterwards):

• The first step is to analyze the current process. This is based on interviews and the existing documentation, which is updated and concretized as required.
• Subsequently, the current weak points are identified and documented in a structured manner.
• Based on the identified weaknesses, the new target process is developed together with the internal team. We design the process redesign as a creative process aligned to the goals, so that all participants can consciously break away from existing procedures.

We document the to-be processes in accordance with the company’s existing specifications and process modeling standards using existing tools. We accompany all steps established in the company to coordinate and approve the designed target processes and plan and control their implementation. In addition to the technical implementation, this also includes the information and training of various stakeholder groups, the implementation of organizational measures, and the execution of a pilot phase.

Description of tasks:

As part of a project for an industrial company that operates in over 40 countries, the workplace PCs of around 2,000 employees worldwide are to be harmonized and equipped with the latest operating system and MS Office version (O365). Prior to this work, the existing PC application landscape must be consolidated and the ability of the applications to run on the new operating system must be ensured. In addition, a software distribution system is to be designed and implemented so that the PCs can be set up consistently and automatically worldwide in the future and operated as economically as possible. As part of the migration to the new operating system, obsolete PC hardware must be replaced.

An external service provider is to be contracted and managed for the design of the required standard client image and the software distribution system architecture. Another service provider is responsible for delivering and setting up the new client systems for all sites; this service provider is also to be managed during the global rollout.

Our Services:

The amendos project manager works in the project core team and actively supports the client’s project manager in the sense of a “dual leadership”. The project office is staffed by additional amendos consultants. In particular the following tasks are taken over:

• Project management, together with the project manager of the client,
• Development of the project scope and setting up the project structure,
• Scheduling, definition of milestones, resource and cost planning,
• Setting up the project organization, including establishing communication rules, developing documentation standards, designing the filing structure for documentation, setting guidelines for project meetings as well as their scheduling,
• Change management: definition of a process for handling project change requests,
• Project management, management of external providers and internal units (including coordination with local site related IT managers worldwide); preparation, moderation and documentation of regular meetings,
• Project controlling: time, cost and status reporting; acceptance of sub-project results, development and implementation of measures in case of deviations from the plan,
• Stakeholder communication / project marketing, including preparation of regular reports for the relevant stakeholders, preparation and support of steering committee meetings,
• Risk management: risk analysis, ongoing risk assessment, escalation management.